


Stingrays

by ShakespeareFreak



Category: Original Work
Genre: Free Verse, Gen, Poetry, Stingrays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-27
Updated: 2019-08-27
Packaged: 2020-09-27 19:40:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20413225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShakespeareFreak/pseuds/ShakespeareFreak
Summary: Stingrays were my favourite animal.Steve Irwin was my childhood hero.In 2006, my father called me with the news.





	Stingrays

Stingrays were my favourite animal. They were so wonderful, so beautiful, too perfect for this world.

Steve Irwin was my childhood hero. He was like a demigod in my young eyes. He shone gold, and could never be harmed or killed.

One day, my father called me while I was in Wal-Mart. He said, "I'm sorry about your man."  
I actually _laughed._ Because it _had_ to be a joke. Steve was invincible, immortal. I laughed for far too long, until I finally realized Dad was serious, and then I cried, right there in the middle of Wal-Mart.

I hated stingrays. I wanted to hurt them. I hated them for killing him, and for making me love them and then destroying my idol. I hated them for _years._

And then, one night, I thought, "Gosh, Steve Irwin would be so sad to know I hate my favourite animal now... because of _him._ He'd be heartbroken."  
And I started thinking about how every time a venomous snake nearly bit him, or a crocodile almost took off his arm, he always did the same thing:  
He'd say it was his fault, that he wasn't being careful enough.  
He'd apologize to the animal for spooking it.  
He'd say the animal didn't do anything wrong, it was just doing what Nature told it to do.  
And then he'd laugh, and call it beautiful.

Stingrays are my favourite animal.

**Author's Note:**

> A true story.
> 
> This was originally written in one go, in prose, as a response to one of my friends posting a meme on Facebook: _"Good afternoon to everyone except the stingray that killed Steve Irwin. Still not over that."_ But I realized, looking it over later, that it sounded like a freeform poem. So I put line breaks where they felt natural, and resisted the urge to do much else to it. As with most of my poetry, I think it works best with as little editing as possible.


End file.
